Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Coming Attractions: WESTWORLD (1973)


Writing about Quark the other day brought to mind Richard Benjamin's other great 70s genre credit - Westworld.

Westworld is one of my favorite sci-fi films of the 1970s, and I am astounded that it hasn't been remade by the originality-deficit folks out in Hollywood. It would be a natural. Not saying I want them to do it, but really, how have they not? It's not like Michael Crichton is going to be writing anything new... and since it's essentially exactly the same plot as Jurassic Park, and today's effects technology would make all the robot stuff utterly convincing, you'd think Spielberg or somebody would have jumped all over this.

15 comments:

  1. One of my favorite films ever. I did a little mini-review as part of my "Sunday Matinee" series on my own blog.

    Oddly, I sort of think the clunkiness of the robots made it look a little more realistic than it might if remade today. Seeing them with ribbon cables connecting the face with the head, and diodes and such in their insides sort of made it more real.

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  2. I was just reading an article on the making of WESTWORLD in an issue of Filmfax (No. 110, Apr-Jun 2006) I had rediscovered in a box. If you don't have it, I'd be glad to mail it to you, Chris.

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  3. Never heard of it. Guess I need to check it out.

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  4. Now I want to dig out my set of Beyond Westworld and give it a watch!

    Tex
    (proceeded by Westworld, and followed by Futureworld, natch)

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  5. Tex - weren't there only a couple episodes of Beyond? I remember that it was one of the quickest-canceled shows ever.

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  6. Looks like it was dead before it ever reach the air. There were only five episodes filmed, with only the first three being aired...

    1-Westworld Destroyed (March 5, 1980)
    2-My Brother's Keeper (March 12, 1980)
    3-Sound of Terror (March 19, 1980)

    More info can be found here...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Westworld

    Tex
    (who saw all three when they aired)

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  7. And don't forget "Futureworld." Hmmmm, maybe we should. ;)

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  8. This one terrified me as a kid. Terminator before Arnold and more proof that James Cameron never had an original idea in his head. Great stuff with a perfect cast.

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  9. Cool blog, Gilligan at Retrospace linked to you so I followed on over.

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  10. I've heard of Westworld before but never saw it. Seeing that trailer, it's totally going in my queue!

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  11. Over on my own site I did Westworld Week, where I reviewed the sequel, the TV series, the obscure ripoff ("Welcome to Blood City"), and even the porno version ("Sexworld"). All except the latter would be good fodder for this blog.

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  12. Please, PLEASE don't give Hollywood any more remake ideas... they've trashed enough of my favorites as it is!

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  13. I'd read a rumour somewhere that at one stage, it would have been remade with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in the Brolin/Benjamin roles, but it fell through. Thankfully :-)

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  14. For a long time I've heard of "Westworld", but never saw it. After reading your blog the other night (which I happened to stumble upon) I decided it was time to rent it. I watched it and was surprised by how good it was. However, you are indeed correct that it completely is the same plot as Jurassic Park. I'm glad to finally check that one off my list. Next up is Starcrash. :)

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